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Prof. Tomaž Pavlin, PhD
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport, Ljubljana, Republic of Slovenia

 

CONTINUITY OR RENEWAL IN YUGOSLAV GYMNASTICS: 6 JANUARY, 1929 DICTATORSHIP AND GYMNASTIC ORGANISATIONS

God. XLIV, 2/2026, str. 359–376
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2026.2.pav.359-376

 

APSTRAKT/REZIME:

After the establishment of the Yugoslav state, gymnasts organised before WWI in Sokol and Orel societies, renewed and consolidated their activities, organised themselves at the state level, and joined international organisations. However, they were not united under a single organisation dedicated to their particular discipline, such as sports. By the end of the first decade of the Yugoslav state, their activities were characterised by “the 6 January Dictatorship” that King Alexander imposed on 6 January 1929 amid a tense internal political situation in the second half of 1928. The State Protection Act banned and dissolved political parties with a religious or “tribal” character. Various societies, including gymnastic ones, whose activities were indirectly linked to the political camps, also came under scrutiny. Consequently, the King and the Government adopted an act establishing the new and unified gymnastic organisation, the Sokol of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was intended to represent a fresh civil-society force that promoted and encouraged the spirit of Yugoslavism. The act fundamentally interfered with the organisational structure of gymnastics, without affecting the sports sector. In the present article, we will, based on available sources, shed light on the formation of the new single all-state gymnastics organisation, which significantly changed the situation in gymnastics, with its programmatic orientation rooted in Yugoslav Sokolism and the Yugoslav Sokol.

 

KLJUČNE REČI: gymnastics, Sokol, physical education, the 6 January Dictatorship, the Sokol of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

 

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